The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Guzmania plant, botanically known as Guzmania hybrid, hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name ‘Combi’.
Guzmania is predominantly epiphytic with a few terrestrial species and is native to the tropics. For the most part, species vary in diameter from 7 or 8 inches to 3 or 4 feet and have rosettes of glossy, smooth-edged leaves. Floral bracts of Guzmania frequently have brilliant colors and may last for many months. The range of colors for Guzmania is generally from yellow through orange but may also include flame red and red-purple. White or yellow, tubular, three-petalled flowers may also appear on a stem or within the leaf rosette but are usually short-lived.
Guzmania may be advantageously grown as pot plants for greenhouse or home use. Desirably, the plants are shaded from direct sunlight, and during the spring to autumn period, the central vase-like part of the leaf rosette is desirably filled with water. Leaves of Guzmania are usually formed as basal rosettes, which are stiff and entire and in several vertical ranks. Guzmania plants have terminal spikes or panicles which are often bracted with petals united in a tube about as long as the calyx.
This new hybrid Guzmania ‘Combi’ is a naturally occurring whole plant mutation of Guzmania ‘Luna’ (unpatented) of the family Bromeliaceae, and was discovered by the inventors, Elly Bak and Nicolaas D.M. Steur. Guzmania ‘Combi’ flowered for the first time in 1999 in Assendelft, the Netherlands.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar through tissue culture was first performed in 1993 Assendelft, The Netherlands and has demonstrated that the combination of characteristics as herein disclosed for the new cultivar are firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of asexual reproduction.